The door swung open. Sonofa?—
Kellan barreled through the entry, skidding to a stop nearly comically. “Uncle Trav, what’re you doing in here? Why’s your shirt off?”
Travis gripped his T-shirt against his naked torso, wishing he could become one with the mattress.
“And what happened to your face?” Kellan asked, moving his gaze from his uncle to his mother, then back again.
Kellan settled his gaze on his uncle sitting on his mom’s bed with a T-shirt gripped to his chest, a set of blue balls, and apparently his mother’s lipstick smeared all over his mug.
His heart tripped over itself as he grasped for ideas on how to play this. There could be no collateral damage for Rachel. Unfortunately, the commands from his brain weren’t working, because though he opened his mouth, no sound came out.
“Uncle Travis was helping me look for my toothbrush,” Rachel said quickly. She raised her arms and then dropped them to her sides. “But we found it. Yay.”
“Brady stole Mr. Pretzel. He won’t tell me where he hid him.” Kellan was on a rant and clearly wasn’t too concerned about the current state of his mother, his uncle, and their… toothbrush situation. “I know it was him because I left Mr. Pretzel under my pillow and only Brady knows where I keep him.”
Rachel turned her rabid gaze to Travis, mouthing, Help.
Travis pointed to her lips.
She must’ve understood what he meant because she was swiping around her mouth with her fingertips. “Tell you what? I’ll go put my toothbrush away. Then Uncle Trav and I will come help with the Mr. Pretzel search.”
“Hurry.” Kellan’s shoulders slumped. Travis could relate to that feeling.
Rachel shooed her son out of the room with the ease and practice of someone who had done it a thousand times before.
As soon as he was gone, she clicked the lock on the door.
“You said you locked it.” She turned a fiery gaze on Travis. This time it had nothing to do with the fire from their chemistry experiments.
No, she looked like a dragon about to breathe fire. To be honest, she scared the piss out of him with the way her skin flushed.
“I did.” He scrambled to his feet and pulled on his shirt. “I guess I accidentally unlocked it, too.”
“Accidentally?” she said with a hiss. “Do you know what happens when there are accidents?”
Um…the kid walks in on his mom in an awkward position with his uncle?
“There cannot be accidents.” As quickly as it started, the fire banked, and she fell against the wall, her back to the plaster.
“Rach?” Dane knocked. “Have you seen Mr. Pretzel?”
“No,” she called back. “Give me a minute to finish changing. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay,” Dane replied before his footfalls disappeared down the hallway.
Travis moved toward Rachel, hands up like he was prepared to be arrested. “Scale of one to ten, how pissed are you right now?”
She rubbed her forehead. “That depends,” she said, and suddenly she was smiling. “Are you going to help me find my toothbrush again later?”
“Tonight.” He let out a holy-fuck-thank-God-that’s-over breath. Then he ran his hands up and over her shoulders. “After everyone is in bed and I’ve installed a second lock on your door, I will help you find all the toothbrushes.”
That got him a smile.
“Then I’m not mad.” She wiped around the edges of his mouth with her thumbs. “There’s makeup remover in my bathroom. You should probably use that—it’s in the pink bottle.”
“Will do.”
“And…uh…wait five minutes after I leave…so…”
